[Obsessions before Freud: history and clinical practice].

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry and the history of mental health.
• The evolution of psychopathology and diagnostic categories.

Background:

• Explores the concept of "obsession" within 19th-century French alienism.
• Builds upon clinical descriptions by Esquirol, Falret, and Legrand du Saulle.

Observation:

• French alienism, through Morel's "emotional delirium" and Janet's "psychasthenia," favored emotional theories of obsession.
• Contrasts this with the German school's focus on intellectual disorders.

Findings:

• Highlights the crucial role of the cultural framework in the manifestation and interpretation of obsessive symptoms.
• Examines the connection between religious scruples, melancholy, and the development of diagnostic categories influenced by fin de siècle mentalities.

Implications:

• Demonstrates how cultural and historical contexts shape psychiatric understanding and classification.
• Provides insight into the historical roots of obsessive symptomology and its diagnostic evolution.